Where Are They Now: Back to Earth with Sci-Fi Kids

Then: Carrie Henn had never acted—ever—before she played Newt in James Cameron's Aliens, the little girl who somehow managed to avoid the titular aliens long enough to be rescued by Ripley, played by a ripped Sigourney Weaver.

Now: How's this for an acting career? One and done. Henn never acted again after Aliens, perhaps preferring to go out with a bang. She now works as a teacher and keeps in touch with Sigourney Weaver.

Then: Imagine being 10 years old and playing a child stuck in a house haunted by demonic forces. Now imagine that movie is Poltergeist, one of Spielberg's scarier offerings. Excuse us while we go hide under the bed.

Now: Robins' post-Poltergeist projects have mostly been behind the camera, although he did appear onscreen in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986). Most recently he wrote You've Got a Friend for the Hallmark Channel, a story about an orphaned boy who joins forces with a Vietnam vet (played by John Schneider—remember Dukes of Hazzard?) to win the soapbox derby. Robins is the only surviving Poltergeist child actor. Dominique Dunne (Dana Freeling)—daughter of famed journalist Dominick Dunne—was strangled to death by ex-boyfriend John Thomas Sweeney shortly after Poltergeist came out, and Heather O'Rourke (Carol Anne Freeling) died during an intestinal surgery in 1988.

Then:Ariana Richards' Jurassic Park character may share a name with Superman's greatest enemy, but Lex was anything but evil. She reacted the way any kid probably would have if they found themselves on an island with real-life dinosaurs—first curious, then scared out of her mind.

Now: She went on to study fine art and drama at Skidmore College and is now a professional painter and member of the Portrait Society of America. She lives in Salem, Oregon, and Steven Spielberg reportedly has one of her watercolors in his office. In 2013, she was in the film Battledogs.

Then: Miko Hughes was just two when he played a terrifying zombie baby in this Stephen King novel turned into a film. By the time he was 12, he had also played a schizophrenic kid in Wes Craven's New Nightmare and an autistic child in Mercury Rising.

Now: After a robust career including TV roles in Full House, Beverly Hills 90210, Touched by an Angel, and Roswell, Hughes continues to work—he had a recurring role on TV's Boston Public (2003) and a guest spot on the ill-fated sitcom-based-on-a-TV-commercial Cavemen (2007). He is also a beekeeper.

Then: Guffey was not even four years old when he debuted in Close Encounters as a child abducted by aliens who later returns to Earth and his distraught single mom (Melinda Dillon). Guffey went on to develop his extraterrestrial side two years later in The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid and was last seen onscreen as a young Billy Hazard in the 1985 TV miniseries North and South (which also featured a young Kirstie Alley).

Now: Guffey is now married and a financial planner in Birmingham, Alabama.